For Beatles fans, it was 50 years ago Sunday

By Dan NaumovichCorrespondent

Saturday

Feb 8, 2014 at 9:30 PMFeb 8, 2014 at 10:08 PM

Scenes of people crowded around televisions were repeated over and over throughout the United States 50 years ago Sunday when The Beatles performed on the nation’s most popular TV program. Springfield-area folks recall the historic moment.

In 1964, Chuck Orwig of Springfield was in his junior year at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where his fraternity house was home to one of the view television sets in the area.

On the evening of Feb. 9, the frat’s 21-inch screen TV was the focus of students from throughout the campus who crammed into the basement to watch four lads from Liverpool, England, make their American television debut.

“As I made my way down the crowded stairs, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the little box. Ed Sullivan was about to announce the Beatles, and when he did, the room erupted. Girls kept screaming even after the music started. They quieted down for a little, and then one of the band (members) shook his hair and the screams started again,” Olwig recalled, in an email to The State Journal-Register.

Similar scenes were repeated over and over throughout the United States that night — 50 years ago today — when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr performed “All My Loving,” “She Loves You,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and other songs on the nation’s most popular television program.

Michael Cheney is a professor of communications at the University of Illinois Springfield, where he teaches a course called, “The Beatles: Popular Music and Society.” He described the Beatles’ appearance on the “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a tipping point on how music and youth culture would evolve in this country.

Overnight sensation

Just five months before the Beatles’ American television debut, George Harrison had visited his sister in southern Illinois and was a complete unknown to everyone he met. But the groundwork was laid for a British invasion.

Capitol Records was convinced to release “Meet the Beatles!” in January 1964, despite the belief of some label executives that guitar rock was a passing fad. Then the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, arranged appearances in the U.S., including two on the Sullivan show (a third performance was filmed before the band went home). By the time the band hit American soil, the Beatles had the No. 1 hit in the land with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

“That’s how much of a culture change that when on between when George was here in late September until when they appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and almost overnight they became a phenomena,” Cheney said.

An estimated 73 million viewers tuned in that evening, setting a ratings record.

“So many people watched it. There was such anticipation and I think for a lot of people it was a bit of a shock. They knew the music, but they didn’t know the look. A lot of people thought the hair was too long,” Cheney said.

Maria Ferraro’s father was among those who were not initially taken with the mop tops.

“My sister and I were already diehard Beatle fans, but we almost didn’t get to see the whole thing when my father walked in and almost shut the TV off, saying something about their long hair,” Ferrero wrote in an email.

The aftermath of the performance shook the nation. The Rev. John Vidakovich of Petersburg was 9 years old when he tuned in to CBS on that fateful Sunday evening. The following day, his school was abuzz with Beatlemania.

“Even after that brief exposure people had already formed allegiances to their favorite Beatle. The girls all loved Paul of course. Most of the boys were Ringo fans, due in part to his name and in part to his playing the drums,” Vidakovich said.

A young fan forever

A lot of happy memories will be evoked when CBS airs a two-hour tribute to the Beatles at 7 p.m. Sunday, exactly 50 years after their first American television appearance.

But for one Springfield resident, the experience will be bittersweet.

Florence Fry Cacioppo’s daughter, Dianna Lynne Cacioppo, was 13 and glued to the TV that night in 1964.

“Oh gosh, I couldn’t get her away from the TV. She’d sit in front of the TV and kept getting closer and I’d have to move her back because it was bad for her eyes,” Cacioppo said.

It wouldn’t be until two years later, however, that she would discover just how deeply her daughter felt about her idols.

Dianna died from congenital kidney disorder on Jan. 24, 1966. While going through her things, Cacioppo discovered a four-page, typewritten document. It was a story Dianna had written titled, “My Wildest Dream.” In it, Dianna is a contest winner who is flown to London to spend five hectic days with the Beatles. The story ends with her being awakened by her mother and discovering that it was all just a dream.

Cacioppo was surprised to find that her daughter’s worldview was more expansive than she ever thought. Dianna included details on air travel and international time zones, and captured the language of her British idols.

“She was writing this all this time and I never knew it. Every time I’d go into her room after knocking, I’d see her kind of hiding something, but I never interfered. But then after she passed away, I found this story and it just broke my heart because I knew how crazy she was for them,” Cacioppo said.

The Beatles touched many lives throughout their career, as did Dianna throughout her short life. Her teachers and classmates at Ursuline Academy described her as cheerful, so much so that many of them didn’t know that she was suffering such a serious ailment until she was hospitalized.

On the scene

But what was it like to be in New York City, epicenter of the Beatles’ first arrival in the U.S.?

Paul was Janice Bartel’s favorite. As a 13-year-old living in New York, she was at the center of the hysteria leading up to the big day. Radio announcers — the same ones saturating the airwaves with Beatles tunes — encouraged fans to greet the band when they touched down at JFK Airport on the Friday before their television debut.

“Unfortunately, I had two parents that did not share my enthusiasm for the Beatles, or their arrival, and I would not be going to the airport but to school,” said Bartel, who lives in Springfield.

Such was her devotion that her parents even made her sister make sure that she went inside the school and didn’t try to sneak off. She and her friends did manage to use the school’s pay phone to call Pan Am airlines to confirm that the boys had made their flight.

On Feb. 8, 1964, Bartel and her friends — dressed in Beatles T-shirts and carrying signs — took the subway downtown to keep vigil outside the Plaza Hotel, where the band was staying.

“I could not believe all the fans lined up to possibly catch a glimpse of the Beatles. The traffic was at a standstill. Every time someone pointed to a window, girls would scream. I think one of the Beatles came to the window, but to this day I cannot tell you which one.

“It was a day I will never forget,” she said.

***

Beatles recreated

Sangamon Auditorium will host a performance by Classic Albums Live performing a note-for-note recreation of the Beatles’ album “Abbey Road” at 8 p.m. April 4. The auditorium is at the University of Illinois Springfield.

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